Richard (Rick) L. Menson

Richard (Rick) L. Menson died in 2021 at age 77. Rick was a Charter Fellow (2000) of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel.

Rick was a graduate of Ripon College in Ripon, WI (B.A. in Political Science and Economics, 1965), Northwestern University School of Law in Evanston, IL (J.D., 1968), and George Washington University in Washington, DC (LL.M. in Taxation, 1973). He served his country as a Captain in the Judge Advocate General’s (“JAG”) Corporation from 1965 to 1973, including 18 months in Vietnam. He joined Gardner, Carton, and Douglas in Chicago, Illinois. As a junior lawyer in the firm’s tax department, Rick told the head of the tax practice that he would need six months of working full-time in the benefits area after the Employee Retirement and Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) was passed to get his clients’ plans up to date, before he would return to the tax department. Little did Rick realize that those six months would turn into a lifelong career in employee benefits. Rick worked at Gardner Carton from 1977 to 1998, leaving as a partner. In 1998, he joined McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe as a partner and leader of the firm’s new Chicago office. He retired in 2012 from the Atlanta office of McGuireWoods.

Rick was active in many employee benefits organizations. He served as the chair of the Joint Committee on Employee Benefits of the American Bar Association, the chair of the Employee Benefit and Executive Compensation Committee of the Business Law Section of the ABA, the chair of that Committee’s Welfare Plan Subcommittee, the chair of the Illinois State Employee Benefits Section Council, and the chair of the Employee Benefits Committee of the Chicago Bar Association. Rick was a Founding Member of the International Pension and Employee Benefit Lawyers Association. He was a board member of the Plan Sponsor Council of America for 20 years and a member of its Legal and Legislative Committee.

Rick’s lifetime contributions in employee benefits are impressive. At Rick’s retirement, McGuireWoods recognized Rick’s “…personal leadership, legal excellence, client skills, and dedication.”

Rick was an incredible mentor to those new to the employee benefits field of law and his legacy was left in the people he encountered every day. But he was most proud of those in his family, especially his grandchildren, and stressed to young associates the important of spending time with family and friends.

Photo Source: The Decade Book, American College of Employee Benefits Counsel 2000-2010